Jan 3, 2010


 

2010 01 03 

Who's Your Daddy?

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Ephesians 1:3-14
John 1:(1-9), 10-18

 

We have begun a new year and a new decade.  Do you remember where you were and what you were doing ten years ago?  This past week, most of the people I have been talking with remember the big Y2K scare.  Do you remember that? We really thought that this would be the end of the world.  Power plants were going to be shut down.  There would be no food, no lights, and no water.  Many people envisioned some sort of apocalyptic event, just short of something out of a horror movie...with floods and volcanoes, anarchy, chaos, and rioting in the streets.  What actually happened?  Nothing really.  The ball fell on Times Square, the water kept flowing, and the lights didn't even flicker. 

 

I think that we had all been so scared to death that we were almost disappointed that nothing terrible happened.  We all went back to work, to school...to life, just as we had before. 

 

But I'll tell you what.  It is times like these, where people start asking questions about God.  Who is he?  Where is he?  Do I know him, and does he know me?  It is in times of disaster and potential disaster that people begin to reflect on their mortality and what they can do about it.

 

Most of us felt that Y2K would be a defining moment in our last decade, but it was about a year and a half later that our country would find that moment in the most unlikely of times and places.  September 11, 2001.  I don't want us to relive that moment right now.  But I think that it is safe to say that the destruction of the World Trade Towers is probably the one event that has almost brought us single handedly to where we are as a nation and as a world. 

 

This event united us as a nation.  It was something for which we would all grieve. It brought us together with a common purpose to protect our nation and find those responsible.  It also brought many people back to church, looking for consolation...looking for peace...looking for answers...looking for God.  Many people found him.

 

But in the years since then, I have sensed something of a spiritual malaise has fallen upon our nation.  They say that our people are still highly spiritual, but I sometimes just don't know what anyone believes in anymore.  I think that pluralism has gripped our people.  For the most part, we are still, "One nation, under God...".  However, to most people, one god is just as good and valid and true as another.  And we are to be just as open to the teachings of Buddha or Krishna or Mohammed as we are to the teachings of Jesus.  The phrase I have heard is that they "are all paths to the top of the same mountain". 

 

Our nation's current push to pluralism scares me, but there are also problems within the Church as well.  If you have your Bibles with you, turn to Ephesians 4:4-6.  "There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

 

Considering that we share one Lord, one faith, one baptism, the Church is often not very united.  The teachings and beliefs of local congregations and national denominations can vary from place to place, pastor to pastor, group to group.  And listening to others, it can get a little scary

 

A couple of years back, I was at a youth conference in Akron.  A pastor came up front, and appealed to everyone saying that we are ALL God's children.  I cringed big time when I heard that.  Because if we are ALL God's children. Then God has a whole bunch of messed up, rebellious, dysfunctional, illegitimate kids running around out there. 

 

I know that this may sound horribly judgmental.  I know it does, but I also remember being one of those messed up, rebellious, dysfunctional, illegitimate kids.  I still remember those days in my life very well.  That is why I disagree with what that pastor said.  If we are all God's children, you would think that we would all look a little more like our Daddy. 

 

Amidst the challenges of the new decade upon us, our first and greatest task...above all else...is to get back to our Father in heaven.  That is what Christmas is.  It is God's way to bring the wandering helpless masses back into his fold. 

 

John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word...Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity...was there at the beginning.  And in the course of time, the Word came to earth. 

 

10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

 

I understand why pastors, teachers, or evangelists like to say that we are ALL God's children, it's comforting.  If you are away from God, it might make you feel better.  However, that is not what John is saying.  The world did not recognize Jesus and who he was.  Jesus came to the Jews, his own people, for whom he came to save, but most did not recognize him.   But to all who received him and believed in him he gave something incredible.  He gave them a gift beyond all measure-the right to become children of God.

 

Jesus came to save the world, but he did not snap his fingers or wave a wand and POOF!  Every person on the planet became a child of God.  No.  We have to receive him in our minds, and believe in him with our hearts.  By this faith, God receives us, and we are born-reborn, born again through him.

 

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  Through obedience to the Law, the Hebrews became his chosen, but by faith in Christ all people can become his children.

 

Eph 1:4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will

 

I know that the word, "predestined" can bring fear into any theological discussion, but it is God's love that calls out to us.  In his love he can and will adopt us...bring us into the family of God as his sons and daughters.  That was his plan.  That was his will from the beginning of time, that the people of this world would reject the ways of the world and choose him

 

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding

 

God wants to renew his relationship with us.  He wants to make things right between us.  When we ask him to make us sons...to make us daughters, he will redeem us.  He will buy us back from the debt of sin that is over us.  He will forgive us our sins, so that we do not ever have to go back to that life again.

 

13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-

 

Through faith, God is willing to sign the adoption papers and mark us with the Holy Spirit as his children and deserving of an inheritance. God has done this for us.  He wants to be our Father., and he wants us to be his children. 

 

There are a whole lot of people out there who do not look like, sound like or live like our Heavenly Father.  And they are perfectly fine with that.  They may not care if God is their father, their brother or their second cousin, twice removed.  We still need to love and care for these people.  God loves these people.  God loves everyone.  I do not and will not ever dispute that. 

 

But we all need his forgiveness and his grace.  And we need to become like our Father who loves us.  Although I may physically look like Buddha, Buddha is not my Daddy.  Though I do not deserve it, God has forgiven me my sins, an adopted me as his son.

 

Who's your daddy?  Do you know God as your Father?  Christ has come so that we know him, and the Father through him.